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Zooey Deschanel hosted a Fox conference call this afternoon to give a peek into the second season of New Girl, which starts next week. As she explained, Season Two will start with a bang when her character, Jess, is laid off from her teaching gig. Fans can expect it to take a big emotional impact. "It's definitely affected her life pretty deeply because this is something she's wanted to do her entire life," said Deschanel. However, she added, Jess will stick to her job search wholeheartedly despite her grief.

This season, Jess and her roommate Nick (Jake Johnson) will continue to build their romantic tension, but they won't pair up just yet. "There's no danger of that happening. They're not getting together anytime soon. They're not ready for each other and nobody is going to push them together," she said, though she noted their "great chemistry." Jess may have more than one Nick on her hands, though; the crew will soon run into a strange fellow at Nick's bar who claims to be Nick... from the future.

Deschanel revealed that Rob Reiner and Jamie Lee Curtis are set to appear as Jess' parents in an episode, most likely the Thanksgiving one. She explained that the writers and producers thought about including Jess' parents last season but focused on other storylines. She also teased the possibility of crossing over with her friend Mindy Kaling on her new show, The Mindy Project. "I think that'd be really fun! I like that idea," she said.

The actress also admitted that she is her own biggest critic. "I'm always grounding it in reality," she said. "I'm watching every week and seeing what's working and I'm using my own sensibilities to sort of inform how I play the characters."

The second season of New Girl premieres on September 25th on Fox. Deschanel will also appear in The Simpsons' season premiere on September 30th.